FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Category:No Man Knows My History
Responses to claims made in Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith.
Pages in category "No Man Knows My History"
The following 190 pages are in this category, out of 193 total.
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C
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- Ensign (Jan. 2013): "He...referred to it using an Old Testament term, Urim and Thummim...He also sometimes applied the term to other stones he possessed"
- Ensign (June 1994): "Highlights in the Prophet’s Life 20 Mar. 1826: Tried and acquitted on fanciful charge of being a “disorderly person,” South Bainbridge, Chenango County, New York
- Ensign (Sept. 1977): "If his translation was essentially the same as that of the King James version, he apparently quoted the verse from the Bible"
G
- Gospel Topics: "Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term 'Urim and Thummim' to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters"
- Gospel Topics: "The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in emphasis and detail"
- Grayson: "extinct North American mammals...losses began in Mexico and Alaska during the Pleistocene and ended in Florida perhaps as recently as 2000 years ago"
J
M
- Martin Harris: "As sure as you see my hand so sure did I see the angel and the plates"
- Martin Harris: "The Book of Mormon is no fake. I know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard"
- Martin: "no theoretical reason why a herd of mastodons, horses, or ground sloths could not have survived in some small refuge until 8000 or even 4000 years ago"
- Miller and Roper: "Bones of domesticated cattle...have been reported from different caves in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico"
- Miller and Roper: "there are sheep native to America. The most common type is the Mountain Sheep, Ovis canadensis"
- Miller and Roper: "two distinct species of peccary live in Mesoamerica....They were hunted and eaten as early as Olmec times"
- Myron H. Bond (1878): John Whitmer "knew as well as he knew he had an existence that Joseph translated the ancient writing which was upon the plates, which he saw and handled"
P
- P. Wilhelm Poulson (1878): John Whitmer said "He handed them uncovered into our hands, and we turned the leaves sufficient to satisfy us"
- Peterson (2005): The plates "are an indigestible lump in the throats of people...who contend that there were no Nephites but that Joseph Smith was nonetheless an inspired prophet"
- Pietro Martire d'Anghiera (1912): "the Spaniards noticed herds of deer similar to our herds of cattle"
Q
- Question: After the end of the rebellion in South Carolina, did the Church not mention the Civil War prophecy for many years?
- Question: Are the Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon actually references to the anti-Masonic panic of Joseph Smith's era?
- Question: Are there any eyewitness accounts of the events that resulted in the trip to Canada to sell the Book of Mormon copyright?
- Question: Could ancient Americans have expanded the definition of "horse" to include new meanings?
- Question: Could Joseph have used a Bible during and simply dictated from it during Book of Mormon translation?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have hypnotized the witnesses to the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have used Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews'' as a guideline for creating the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Brigham promise that Joseph Smith III would eventually take over the Church?
- Question: Did Emma Smith discover her husband Joseph with Fanny Alger in a barn?
- Question: Did Fanny Alger have a child by Joseph Smith?
- Question: Did Joseph attempt to translate the Kinderhook Plates using the "gift and power of God?"
- Question: Did Joseph know what the italics in the Bible meant?
- Question: Did Joseph own a Bible at the time of the Book of Mormon translation?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon support the formation of a vigilante band called the Danites?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith attempt to translate the Kinderhook Plates?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith believe that the Book of Mormon explained local legends associated with the "Mound Builders" of the Eastern United States?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith claim at one time that Kirtland Safety Society notes would be "as good as gold"?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith claim that the Kirtland Safety Society was established by a revelation from God?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith claim to have walked on water?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith consummate any of these marriages with married women?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith ever publicly attempt to teach the doctrine of plural marriage?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith father children by polyandrous plural wife Prescindia Buell?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith give some of the brethren money to purchase whiskey in violation of the Word of Wisdom?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith have any children through any of his polyandrous marriages?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith incorporate his father's dream of the tree of life into the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith marry Fanny Alger as his first plural wife in 1833?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith misidentify a Greek "psalter" as a containing "reformed Egyptian" hieroglyphics?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith mislead investors in the Kirtland Safety Society by collecting boxes full of sand with money placed on top, in order to make it appear that the bank had more hard money than it did?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith or his associates attempt to reconcile with William Law before he published the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith prophesy that Jesus Christ would return in 1890?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith receive a revelation instructing him to to sell the copyright to the Book of Mormon in Canada and later claim that the revelation was false?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith say that he would be a "second Muhammad," threatening to spread his beliefs with the sword?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith say that viewing the gold plates would result in death?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith write a pro-polygamy pamphlet called The Peace Maker in 1842?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith's mother say that the First Vision was of an "angel"?
- Question: Did Joseph use his seer stone to receive the text of the Book of Abraham in the same manner as he did for the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Martin Harris tell people that he did not see the plates with his natural eyes, but rather the "eye of faith"?
- Question: Did Martin Harris tell people that he only saw the plates with his "spiritual eye"?
- Question: Did Oliver Cowdery state that Joseph did not know if a "supreme being" existed in 1823?
- Question: Did Solomon Spaulding's doctor state that Spaulding talked to him about the Nephites in his manuscript?
- Question: Did some of Joseph Smith's associates believe that he had an affair with Fanny Alger?
- Question: Did the Danite band persist even after they were exposed?
- Question: Did the three witnesses's experience of seeing the plates and the angel take place only in their minds?
- Question: Do any other religious traditions view the Garden of Eden as "local"?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that the scriptural terms "church of the devil," the "great and abominable church," and the "whore of all the earth" refer to a specific religion?
- Question: Do Martin Harris's statements related to the "spiritual eye" or "eye of faith" contradict the reality of his witness?
- Question: Do we have any record of Joseph Smith performing healings or other miracles by the power of Christ's priesthood?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon contain anti-Masonic language?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon describe the Lamanites as being "cursed" with a "red skin"?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon plagiarize the King James Bible?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon rely primarily on those chapters from Isaiah mentioned in Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews''?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon support the idea that "eternal" or "endless" punishment can be temporary?
- Question: Has the implementation and enforcement of the Word of Wisdom changed over time?
- Question: Have any ancient horse remains from the Nephite period been found in the New World?
- Question: How did Emma Hale Smith react to Joseph's practice of plural marriage?
- Question: How did Joseph Smith actually use the gold plates?
- Question: How did Joseph Smith use his seer stones as a youth?
- Question: How did the erroneous story of the attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright develop over time?
- Question: How do Church members assume that Joseph would have "used the plates" during translation?
- Question: How do critics of the Church attempt to dismiss the literal experience of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon?
- Question: How does David Whitmer's account of the attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright compare to those of the eyewitnesses?
- Question: How does the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (GAEL) relate to the Book of Abraham?
- Question: How reliable are the accounts of the discovery of Zelph?
- Question: How was enforcement of the Word of Wisdom phased in over time?
- Question: How was the decision reached to destroy the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?
- Question: How was the text of the Book of Abraham produced by Joseph Smith?
- Question: How were the activities of the Danite band exposed?
- Question: If the Garden of Eden was in Missouri, how did Abraham, Moses and other prophets end up in the Old World?
- Question: If the story of Emma pushing Eliza Snow down the stairs is true, why did Eliza not make use of it?
- Question: In what way did Joseph Smith implement the Word of Wisdom during his lifetime?
- Question: Is it possible that Joseph Smith simply added the Book of Ether to the Book of Mormon as an "afterthought" in order to explain the variety of animals in the New World?
- Question: Is it possible to deduce Joseph Smith's thoughts and dreams years after his death?
- Question: Is it true that Mormons believe the original Garden of Eden was located in Missouri?
- Question: Is it true that the Danites were pledged to “plunder, lie, and even kill if deemed necessary?"
- Question: Is the Spalding theory of Book of Mormon authorship credible?
- Question: Should church officers be celibate?
- Question: Was a "vagabond fortune-teller" named Walters Joseph Smith's "mentor"?
- Question: Was a pregnant Eliza R. Snow pushed down the stairs by a furious Emma, resulting in a miscarriage?
- Question: Was Ezra Booth commanded to take a wife from among the Indians?
- Question: Was Isaac McWithy brought before the High Council on charges of "insolence" because he refused to sell his land to Joseph Smith for $3000?
- Question: Was Joseph Smith afraid to reproduce the text of the lost 116 pages of Book of Mormon manuscript because he could not do so?
- Question: Was Joseph Smith anointed to be "King over the earth" by the Council of Fifty?
- Question: Was Joseph Smith married or sealed to women who were already married to other living men?
- Question: Was Oliver Cowdery aware that some in the Church were practicing polygamy in 1835 at the time he authored the "Article on Marriage"?
- Question: Was the "Pentecost" at the Kirtland Temple dedication actually a drunken orgy?
- Question: Was the ''View of the Hebrews'' theory of Book of Mormon origin advanced during the lifetime of Joseph Smith?
- Question: Was the Apostle Paul married?
- Question: Was the destruction of the ''Nauvoo Expositor'' legal?
- Question: Was the establishment of the Kirtland Safety Society "anti-bank" illegal?
- Question: Was the idea that Blacks were neutral in the "war in heaven" ever official doctrine?
- Question: Was the Joseph Smith Translation intended to be a restoration of original Bible text?
- Question: Was the practice of polygamy general knowledge among Latter-day Saints in 1835 when the "Article on Marriage" was published?
- Question: Was the United Order simply a form of communism?
- Question: Was the young Joseph Smith a teller of "tall tales"?
- Question: Was there a brothel in Nauvoo near the temple?
- Question: Was Warren Parrish signing new notes for the Kirtland Safety Society even after the bank had fallen into difficulty?
- Question: Were Joseph Smith's final words, "O Lord, my God!" a cry for help or mercy from Freemasons in the mob at the Carthage jail?
- Question: Were the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar produced prior to the Book of Abraham?
- Question: What are the criticisms related to Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision?
- Question: What are the Hurlbut affidavits?
- Question: What are the Kinderhook Plates?
- Question: What are the reasons for the changes to the Doctrine and Covenants?
- Question: What authorship theories are proposed by non-believers to account for the authorship of the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What criticisms are related to Oliver Cowdery's 1834-1835 history of the Church?
- Question: What did David Whitmer's associates say about his character?
- Question: What did Joseph Capron claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
- Question: What did William Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
- Question: What do the Hurlbut affidavits claim about the Smith family's character and reliability?
- Question: What do the Hurlbut affidavits say about the Spalding manuscript and the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What do the italicized words in the Bible represent, and why is it relevant to the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What do we know about Joseph Smith's first plural wife Fanny Alger?
- Question: What do we know about the chronology of the Book of Mormon translation and publication?
- Question: What events resulted in Joseph Smith's 1826 court appearance in South Bainbridge?
- Question: What is "Polyandry?"
- Question: What is Adam-ondi-Ahman?
- Question: What is Joseph Smith's 1826 South Bainbridge "trial" for "glasslooking"?
- Question: What is special about the chiasmus found in Alma 36?
- Question: What is the history of name changes of the Church?
- Question: What is the meaning of "eternal" life?
- Question: What is the nature of "endless" or "eternal" punishment?
- Question: What is the origin of the modern horse in the New World?
- Question: What is the story of Zelph?
- Question: What part of Paul's advice regarding marriage actually represents Paul's opinion?
- Question: What role do horses ''not'' play in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What statements have Latter-day Saints leaders made regarding the location of the Garden of Eden?
- Question: What was Paul's teaching on marriage?
- Question: What was the Council of Fifty?
- Question: What was the Lamanite curse?
- Question: What was the nature of Joseph Smith's "polyandrous" marriages?
- Question: What was the size of each of the gold plates?
- Question: What was the thickness of each gold plate?
- Question: What was the thickness of the entire volume of gold plates?
- Question: When did Joseph Smith demonstrate knowledge of the elements of the endowment ritual?
- Question: When was the Danite band formed and why?
- Question: Where can I learn more about the Sidney Rigdon/Solomon Spalding authorship theory?
- Question: Who made the changes to the Doctrine and Covenants?
- Question: Why are horses considered an anachronism in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why did Joseph keep the doctrine of plural marriage private?
- Question: Why did Joseph Smith say "I had not been married scarcely five minutes...before it was reported that I had seven wives"?
- Question: Why did Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer accept Hiram Page's seer stone revelations as authoritative?
- Question: Why did Paul say that it was not good for a man to touch a woman?
- Question: Why did the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants include a statement of marriage that denied the practice of polygamy at a time when some were actually practicing it?
- Question: Why did the Nauvoo City Council feel it was necessary to destroy the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?
- Question: Why didn't the newspapers in Palmyra take notice of Joseph Smith's First Vision?
- Question: Why do Mormons use water instead of wine for their sacrament services?
- Question: Why does ''History of the Church'' say that Joseph Smith said "I have translated a portion of them..."?
- Question: Why does the Book of Mormon say that Jesus would be born "at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers" when the Bible states that he was born in Bethlehem?
- Question: Why does the Church teach that marriage is essential for full exaltation, when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:1 that it is good for a man not to marry?
- Question: Why don't potential pre-Columbian horse remains in the New World receive greater attention from scientists?
- Question: Why was Joseph fined if he wasn't found guilty of anything?
- Question: Why were the gold plates needed at all if they weren't used directly during the translation process?
- Question: Why would Martin Harris use the phrases "eye of faith" or "spiritual eye" to describe his visionary experience?
- Question: Why would Paul advise people not to be married?
S
- Sorenson: "The Miami Indians, for example, were unfamiliar with the buffalo and simply called them 'wild cows'"
- Sorenson: "There is an animal which they call chic, wonderfully active, as large as a small dog, with a snout like a sucking pig. The Indian women raise them"
- Sorenson: Horse bones in Yucatan "considered to be pre-Columbian on the basis of depth of burial and degree of mineralization"
- Source:Echoes:Ch12:18:Martin Harris on the translation process
- Source:Gospel Topics:Peach and Violence:Danites
- Source:Revelations in Context:The Word of Wisdom:it required time to wind down practices that were so deeply ingrained
- Stephen H. Webb: "Evidence That Demands Our Amazement... Joseph Smith was a remarkable person"
T
- The Joseph Smith Papers: "Several later documents suggest that several women who were already married to other men were, like Marinda Hyde, married or sealed to Joseph Smith"
- Turley claimed that John Whitmer said: "I now say I handled those plates. there was fine engravings on both sides. I handled them...and they were shown to me by a supernatural power"